Fulltimer Urban Boondocker

[rvgrammy1953]

I'm late to this party....Welcome, Annie, to a great place full of fun-loving, chatty, nosey, sharing and caring bunch of gals.....

[Anniepoo]

Second Life, unfortunately, doesn't allow anyone under 18 (well, there's some complicated rule that can let in minors with some restrictions, but it isn't worth doing). There are other, more kid friendly virtual worlds.
It's a wise restriction - in Second Life you can go anywhere, and that includes some seamy corners. Since it's a world where everybody can see each other and interact, you're in the world with everybody else, good and bad. So letting kids loose in Second Life would be much like letting them loose in a city.
The Second Life viewer's not very kid friendly. I suspect it'd tax most 9 year old's patience.
On the other hand, you'd be more than welcome in Second Life, and yes, I can make you look much better than me (I actually have a sort of plain avatar. Since it's my work I want to seem 'serious'). And you could show your kids all the stuff.

I've spent a grand total of 4 months teaching children, so I asked on an educators list. After hearing 'hell no, don't let a 9 year old loose on SL', several K12 teachers suggested whyville. Other suggestions were poptropica and herotopia. I don't know any of them.

I do know http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roblox, it's a child friendly experience of building, much like Second Life, but not science oriented.

A childrens librarian friend suggested http://www.stevespangler.com has lots of experiments you can do (even without buying the kits they sell). And going to the library, of course.
pbskids.org is a great science site.

This is a great book of things to do with a kid, many science oriented:

http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/2010 ... -ny-times/

netflix! Zillions of wonderful science related 'stuffs' on netflix

Hey, want to actually DO some real, honest to goodness science for NASA?
http://www.zooniverse.org/
They're asking people to help find things in all the data they're collecting. If you have the sort of kids who can get 'hooked' on something and spend hours concentrating, get them involved in moon zoo, a project to mark craters on the moon's surface from the LRO.

Zoo Tycoon! Great educational/science game. The original one was the best, the later versions became more complex, and are too complex for an 8 year old. You can find it for a couple bucks on ebay. Help the kids figure out how to draw fences. Tell them that shift 4 gives them money if they run out.

off the computer (yay! The computer's better for FINDING things to do OFF the computer):
chemistry-
Teach them about color mixing and paint. Watercolors (make sure you understand negative colors).

kitchen acid-base chemistry here:
http://fatherhood.about.com/od/teaching ... iments.htm

Make rock candy!

Start a collection of the elements!

physics -
Look up water bottle rockets - they're simple to make, just valve from a tire and a 2 liter bottle. Tons of online info about them.

astronomy - binoculars are better than a crummy telescope, but naked eyes work.
If the kids go on an RV trip, the dark sky is great.
Stuff to do on a dark night:
Look at the moon - a printed map of the moon, a flashlight with a red filter (so you don't ruin your dark adaptation) and a clear night with a big full moon and you can find all the mares and stuff. Figure out from library or internet where the astronauts landed, and try to find those spots on the moon.

With a star chart find various constellations.
Lots of online programs will tell you where to look for the planets.

Lots of universities have observatories. A suprising number have open house, you can go look through the telescope at the sky.

Show up at the local amateur astronomy club.

Got an old film camera? Take a time exposure by leaving the camera out all night.
Point it at Polaris.
Out some place where there's a lot of space? Try making a model of the solar system to scale.
Hey, we're just a tiny little spec floating in space! (math's appropriate for a 9 year old for this).

biology -
gardening!!!!

find a BIG piece of ground that's bare or paved. Draw a blue whale on it full size with chalk.
Them things are BIG. Elephants are big too. I had fun once figuring out how to roast an elephant whole (turns out it takes months).

space technology:
Violate them gender norms! Get your granddaughter a model kit for a space ship. Assembling plastic models is a first step towards a life of making things for many kids. Make sure it's age appropriate in terms of complexity.

computers and programming -
Scratch! Great fun!
http://scratch.mit.edu/

geology -
another great thing to do in an RV. You don't need to go to a special place - all you need to do is find a road cut.

that'd get ya started, but a bit of time spent surfing the net would generate a ton more stuff.

[carold]

Ditto what Sharon said, Annie. I'm going to have to peruse thru some of those sites. I wish this had been available when I taught SLD years ago. Great for anyone, but definitely for those that need to use a variety of senses to learn where reading is not their strength and to keep interest level up. Do they market this to any educational groups or school systems? Maybe home school groups? carold

[gjkl]

Fotget the kids, this sounds like fun for me to do. I'm still a kid @ heart.

[BirdbyBird]

Annie....neat stuff thank you for sharing!

[bluepinecones]

Adding another late but warm welcome.
Very interesting stuff you are doing. You'd feel right at home in my hometown - Huntsville, AL was just named by Forbes as the 4th geekiest city in America.
I was involved for many years with gaming for the Dept of Defense and later with FEMA. Not much of that available to public but spin-offs are making their way to the outside world.

[mitch5252]

..

Dang it, Annie! I think you got me hooked on trying that Second Life!!!
But I can't find a short, fat, old, red-headed avatar...where are those hidden?
Maybe I'll just be a dog. Haven't looked at animals yet. But then you couldn't change clothes...

..

[Bethers]

Wow, Annie, I'm impressed. Love what you do and your enthusiasm for doing it. And I know I'll be hooked, so haven't yet clicked on a link and joined. Someone will probably have to come drag me kicking and screaming off my computer once I get started Well, sometimes they already have to do that. I have a list so long of things I HAVE to do before I can start playing with that. But I promise, I will be.

[JoanE]

Hi Annie,

I concur with others' comments..Wow is right. Your list of resources for children is amazing. I don't have any kids to educate or keep entertained anymore but Second Life sounds like it would be a blast for me.

Welcome to the forum. Hope to meet you at some point but right now I'm on the east coast.

Joan

[Anniepoo]

Dang it, Annie! I think you got me hooked on trying that Second Life!!!
But I can't find a short, fat, old, red-headed avatar...where are those hidden?
Maybe I'll just be a dog. Haven't looked at animals yet. But then you couldn't change clothes...

Fluffygirl! They have wonderful short, fat, old, red headed avatars!
(hey, I'm short, fat, and old in RL, but my AV's not!)

Being a dog's fun! I know a couple dogs, and they have permission to do silly things. People using animal
avatars call themselves 'quadrupeds', 'quads', or 'ferals'.
Sometimes when I'm not working I'm a bronzeback doe, and my home's a forest.



Realistek has dogs
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hunder/238/140/1801
So does lost ferals
http://slurl.com/secondlife/The%20Lost%20Furest/107/86/23

Send an 'IM' to Annie Obscure. That's me in SL.

[Anniepoo]

Yes! We've noticed that the students who are generally the 'worst' students often are the ones who do best with this method. In fact one thing we're working on now is trying to improve the experience for the minority of auditory learners, those who do well in traditional classrooms.

[mitch5252]

..

So, I made it to your land, Annie...here's my first avatar, and then I got realistic...






Man, it's expensive to own land, isn't it???? YIKES!

..

[VickieP]

[JoanE]

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[sharon]

To funny Mitch!! I personally think you look more like the first one....just sayin'

Annie, thanks for all of the suggestions! Didn't expect you to go to all of that trouble, but really appreciate it! The suggestions will be passed on to the respective moms.